Monthly Archives: July 2013

Short Story Rough Drafts

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All right, as of 07/15 I have finished six short story rough drafts.  That is since July 4th, so on that is roughly a short story every two days.

These short stories range anywhere from 1,000 – 4,000 words each, and they are all very, very rough.  I intend to revise them beginning tonight with the first entry for the NeaDNAthal anthology.  They’re allowing for two entries to that, so I will see if I can get another one out.  The first is a futuristic sci-fi tale, but I think the next one (If there is one) will be back in the past.  A steampunk tale, maybe.

Here are the working titles for the six rough drafts and where they are bound for:

“Subroutine” – Penumbra‘s Hitchcock theme.

“For All Mankind” – Wily Writers‘ Military theme.

“A Well-Ordered Garden” – Wily Writers‘ catch-all speculative theme.

“The Future in the Past” – NeaDNAthal anthology, entry number one.

“The Re-Gift of the Magi” – Crossed Genres‘ “Gift” theme.

“Enough” – Not sure where this is going just yet.  Happened to just spit it out one morning, so it needs a lot of refinement.

July 2013 Goal Progression

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So far, the rough drafts of three short stories have been finished.  Also, between the two novel ideas I was floating around I’ve settled on the older one of the two.  The world is a little bit more established and should give me plenty to work with as I try to speed through the rough draft process.

Things have been off to a bit of a rocky start this month, but we are picking up steam.

I will also need to make time to re-submit some tales (Such as “Code Amaranth”) to new markets.  For most of my tales (With the exception of “A Tuberous Anomaly” and “The Little Red Survivalist”) it is a long journey down Rejection Alley before arriving at the Hall of Acceptability.

“Code Amaranth” Rejected in Final Selection

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Back in April I submitted a short story titled “Code Amaranth” to the Future Embodied Anthology.  There were around 250 submissions total and the story made it to the final round of selection before being dropped.

While disappointing, it is heartening to know that the story did so well given the quantity of tales it was up against.  Here’s hoping it finds a home elsewhere!

July 2013 Goals

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It had been my intent to write a “June 2013 Goals” post, but some issues came up that prevented much writing (Read: no writing) during June.  It was completely my fault, as there was certainly time to write.

Novel Writing

Well, July 2013 begins with an added note of urgency.  I’ve had a novel idea I’ve been mentally tossing around for quite some time, and some of it has already been put to paper.  I wanted to start writing the rough draft in July with the idea of being done with it in September.  The end date in September is still there, but there is now less time between now and then to get the draft done.  Pressure can be a good thing, so here’s my goal for the month:

Week 1: Go back over my old notes and writings, including a short story set in the same universe.  Come up with a solid structure for the story, and a basic (if not detailed) outline.

Weeks 2-4: Begin writing the rough draft.  1,000 words per day is the goal, so over 21 days we should have approximately 20-25% of the story written.

I would push for a more ambitious writing goal, but I need to save room for short story writing, which will allow my brain to roam in random directions as it is wont to do.  It will also allow for more chances at publication, either in magazines or in anthologies.

Short Story Writing

My writing goal for short stories is the same as the novel writing: 1,000 words per day, so by the end of this month there should be around 31,000 words of short stories under my belt.  Will it be as exact as that?  Probably not.  But, I’ll do my best to make that happen.  At an average of 3,000 words per story that could be as many as 10.

There are some upcoming theme and anthology deadlines that look interesting, including (In no certain order):

Tell Me a Fable – A Grimm Retelling

NeaDNathal – Another Fringeworks anthology, this one about Neaderthals having to be resurrected for some reason.

Wily Writers – They have three themes with a July 31 deadline, and they all look interesting: Military, Psychological Horror, and Speculative Fiction (A catch-all?).

Penumbra – Each month they have an interesting theme.  Last month was the Fae (Elves, faerie-folk, pixies, etc), next month is Gaslight Fantasy, and this month is Alfred Hitchcock.  Not sure what I could do for a Hitchcock-style story, but maybe I can come up with something.

There are also a few flash fiction ideas I’m tinkering with, so hopefully I can get those out in-between these deadline tales.